The invention relates to a dishwasher and an inlet bolt for such a dishwasher.
A dishwasher, in particular a domestic dishwasher, has a wash tub enclosing an interior. The interior contains e.g. crockery baskets in which the dishes to be washed are placed, and water spray arms which during the cleaning process apply washing liquid to the entire interior in order to clean the dishes located there. FIG. 5 shows a known wash tub 34 (here only the sidewalls and base). FIG. 6 shows the detail VI from FIG. 5, FIG. 7 essentially a section along the line VII-VII through FIG. 6. In order to deliver clean water to the interior 36 of the wash tub 34 e.g. at the start of a wash, the wash tub 34 has a port 46 through which a clean water feed line 47 is inserted. The feed line 47 leads, for example, from a heat exchanger 49 located outside the wash tub 34, in particular a storage tank, which can be filled with clean water, preferably cold water, preferably in the intermediate wash cycle or preferably at or after the end of the intermediate wash cycle of the wash cycle of a dishwasher program to be executed, into the interior 36 where it ends in an inlet opening 102 through which the clean water can flow into the interior. Said heat exchanger 49 is in heat-conducting contact with a wall of the wash tub 34 in order to promote, during the drying cycle of the respective dishwasher program, the condensation into droplets of liquid of the hot steam present in the wash tub after the last liquid-conveying wash sub-cycle, particularly rinsing, by providing a surface that is cooler than the wash tub interior.
It is known to implement the feed line 47 in two sections. It then has a line end 41 essentially outside the wash tub 34, i.e. leading from outside to the wash tub 34. As a second section, an inlet bolt 104 is screwed through the port 46 into the line end 41 from the interior 36. The inlet bolt 104 has an axial bore 106 in the direction of a central longitudinal axis of the bolt, thereby continuing the feed line 47 from the exterior of the wash tub 34 to its interior 36. The term “axial bore” is to be understood here in particular as including any arbitrarily shaped, i.e. also e.g. curved, cavity allowing water to flow through the feed line. The wash tub 34 is expediently pressed between the inlet bolt 104 and line end 41, particularly with the interposition of a gasket (not shown). However, other designs are also conceivable here which do not involve the wash tub 34 being pressed therebetween. The inlet bolt 104 is fitted using an Allen key on the correspondingly hexagonal shaped axial bore 106 from the interior 36. The inlet bolt is also termed the water inlet screw.
This on the one hand provides a seal between the interior and the exterior in the region of the port while at the same time mechanically fixing the feed line at the port or rather in the wash tub. A corresponding dishwasher, in particular an inlet bolt of this kind, is disclosed in DE 10 2007 052 084 A1, for example.
In practice, either no clean water is fed through the feed line to the interior of the wash tub during the respective liquid-conveying wash sub-cycle, such as e.g. the cleaning cycle, of the wash cycle of a dishwasher program selected or, expressed in general terms, of the respective washing or cleaning operation of the dishwasher, or at most clean water is fed through the feed line to the interior of the wash tub only prior to or at the start of the respective wash sub-cycle for wash bath changing and/or only during a refill phase for adding to or mixing an existing wash bath quantity of the respective liquid-conveying wash sub-cycle, such as e.g. the pre-wash cycle or cleaning cycle, whereas no clean water flows in through the feed line during the remaining time of the respective wash sub-cycle of a dishwasher program selected. Particularly during the phases in which no clean water is fed in, dirty water, grease or dirt particles detached from the items to be washed can get into the axial bore or more specifically the feed line and the heat exchanger. Over the course of time, the feed line or even the upstream water heat exchanger may thus become contaminated or fouled with grease. For this reason it is known, after final installation of the inlet bolt in the dishwasher, as shown in FIG. 6, to place a cover cap 110 onto the inlet bolt in the direction of the arrow 108.
The cover cap must be fitted after final installation of the screwed-in inlet bolt 104, as the latter's rotational position after final mounting is not predictable. Due to the shape of the cover cap 110, the flow direction of inflowing clean water is diverted downward in the direction of the arrow 112. The cover cap also prevents the ingress of dirty water, grease and foreign bodies into the axial bore 110.